I was driving on Hwy 35 near the Lynxville dam a few days ago and in a 30 second drive by I counted five eagles. One day in December 2010 I crossed the Hwy 18 bridge traveling from Prairie du Chien to Marquette, Iowa. On that drive across the Mississippi and its backwaters I saw more than 10 eagles. These winter eagles congregate around any open water  to fish and enjoy lunch or dinner, maybe even breakfast. Eagles can be seen diving into the water and snatching a fish, or standing on the ice enjoying a meal, or circling overhead looking for a fish, or perched in a nearby tree just waiting their turn.

On Saturday, Feb 25, 2012, the Prairie du Chien Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Effigy Mounds National Monument (located in Iowa a few miles north of the Hwy 18 bridge) will sponsor Bald Eagle Appreciation Day. Activities will run from 9 am until 4:30 pm and will include a live raptor program, nature film, eagle photography, and a life size eagle nest replica. Outdoor viewing with spotting scopes will be offered. Prairie du Chien offers great dining and lodging, so come and make a day of it. Couple this with a trip to Cabelas Outdoor Store in Prairie du Chien, a long drive on Hwy 35 along the beautiful Mississippi River, or a drive eastward to the Kickapoo River Valley and the quaint villages of Crawford and Vernon Counties. Nice winter time in Wisconsin.

View from Wyalusing State Park

Hiking opportunities in Southwest Wisconsin abound!

Five large parks (three state parks, one national monument, and one public reserve) are located between the Prairie du Chien area and the northern end of the Kickapoo River. As the proverbial crow flies, this is a distance of about 60 miles, but taking the crooked, winding roads of the Driftless Area would require about 80 miles and two hours of driving. The good news is that all of that driving will be along scenic rural roads with little traffic and with pleasant surprises along the entire route.

Just to the southwest of Prairie du Chien, in Iowa, lie Pike’s Peak State Park and Effigy Mounds National Monument. At Pike’s Peak you have easy access to the best overlook along the upper Mississippi River. This overlook stands 400 feet above the Mississippi and looks east at Wisconsin’s Wyalusing State Park and at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. Seven miles north of Pikes Peak is Effigy Mounds National Monument. Along with great bluff trails Effigy Mounds offers a very informative Visitor’s Center that explains the history of Native Americans in the upper Mississippi Valley.

Wyalusing State Park on the Wisconsin side of the river boasts of twenty miles of hiking trails, great Mississippi River overlooks’ and even a gathering place for amateur astronomers to view the dark skies of the rural area.

Horseback Riding at Wildcat Mountain State Park

From Prairie du Chien find your way east to State Highway 131 and drive north through the Kickapoo Valley. You will not need to leave your car to enjoy constant rural beauty as the highway winds its way along the Kickapoo River and through a half dozen small river villages. Toward the north end of the Kickapoo Valley, just north of the Village of La Farge, you will find the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. The Reserve offers more than 8000 acres of public land that stretches along a 15 mile section of the Kickapoo River. The terrain is typical Driftless Area – a constant succession of wooded bluffs and small valleys. The Kickapoo Reserve is bordered to the north by Wisconsin’s Wildcat Mountain State Park. Together these park areas offer more than 50 miles of hiking, bicycling, mountain biking, and horse trails.

It would take the average person weeks to explore all of this area’s hiking trails. During your stay in the area you will find great food, unique shopping opportunities, and comfortable lodging. This is a great destination for a weekend or a week.

This is a special time of the year along the upper Mississippi River, near the tri-state area where Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota meet. Just south of the city of Brownsville, Minnesota in the extensive Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, the Corps of Engineers has been rebuilding islands in the backwaters of the Mississippi. These islands were originally present when the river was dammed, but then gradually eroded over the subsequent 60 or 70 years. It turns out that those islands provided the perfect habitat for tuberous plants that offer a perfect diet to migrating  swans.

Migrating Swans on the Mississippi

The islands eroded away and the tuberous plants disappeared. The Corps initiated a project many years ago to rebuild those islands and to make them more resistant to erosion. After many years of reduced numbers of migrating swans, the newly recreated islands are working! Now you can see as many as 25,000 Tundra Swans on any given day from late October until the backwaters freeze over. An estimated 25-40% of the eastern population of Tundra Swans stop near Brownsville on their trip from Canada to the Atlantic coast.

For our guests at Lonesome Hollow or for anyone living in or visiting Wisconsin’s Driftless Area or Kickapoo Valley the short drive to Brownsville will provide fantastic sights and sounds of these migrating birds.

Valley at Inn at Lonesome Hollow

Take your time and enjoy the wineries or microbreweries; or the shops in Viroqua, Prairie du Chien, or McGregor;  or the multiple overlooks  which treat your eyes to the visual candy on a clear, crisp autumn day.  This a beautiful time of year for canoeing, kayaking, and hiking.  A drive through the Amish communities to stop at their shops or watch them harvest their fields using their Belgian horses is always a treat.

Early Morning Mist at Lonesome Hollow

Turn off the main highway onto the backroads, where every curve and every hilltop reveals a phenomenal vista.  The orchard ridge in Gays Mills offers marvelous views, as well as delicious varieties of apples, apple cider donuts, apple pizzas, and taffy apples.

In Lonesome Hollow’s own little valley the mornings are cool and mists hug the ground until the sun comes over the hill.  Then the woods are ablaze with color.   Our guests sit on the patio and enjoy the view, while sipping a cold drink or enjoying wine and cheese.  The lucky ones will spot a deer, or eagle, or red tail  hawk; or spot a flock of geese honking thousands of feet in the sky as they fly south.  It is such a beautiful time of year.  A time of pumpkins and pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins; taffy apples, apple pie, or Lonesome Hollow’s Apple Cinnamon French Toast!

For several reasons the fall colors are especially good in the Driftless Region of Southwest Wisconsin. The Driftless Area is very rugged and much of the land is heavily forested. Maple trees constitute about 50% of the Driftless Area trees and over time this percentage will increase (this bodes well for future maple syrup production as well). Also the terrain itself, a constant expanse of ridges and valleys, creates an environment in which there are wooded hillsides that face in every direction. This extends the time over which fall colors can be enjoyed. The south and west facing hillside will turn color first, followed by the east and north facing hillsides. Likewise the trees along many streams and along the Mississippi River will hold their leaves longer and produce fall colors after many other trees have disrobed themselves for winter.

Fall at Lonesome Hollow B&B

In the Kickapoo Valley fall is a great time to take in the Vernon County Fair and the Driftless Area Art Festival. Explore the shops of local Amish artisans. Walk through the apple orchards of Gays Mills and purchase locally grown apples, cider, and baked goods.

Gays Mills Apples

Fall is nature’s way of preparing us for the rigors of a Wisconsin winter. The Inn at Lonesome Hollow is located only a few miles from the Gays Mills orchards. Come over and spend two or three glorious fall days with us.

Nora and Pete

Dutchman's Britches

Nora and I are fortunate to live in the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin, a rugged area of bluffs and valleys, relatively few people, and incredible scenery. Not only do we get to live in this wonderful place, but we also can greet and host hundreds of guests each year at our Bed and Breakfast, the Inn at Lonesome Hollow. Our B&B offers 160 acres of mostly wooded hill and valley, many gardens, a large pond, and a completely undeveloped ridgetop woods/prairie.

Spring Beauty

On Sunday afternoon the temperature was in the mid 60s, the sun was shining brilliantly, and we found ourselves in the midst of the earliest spring either of us can remember. Temperatures have been above average ever since the beginning of March. Trees are leafing out at least two weeks ahead of schedule. Maple syrup season has come and gone and the morels will undoubtedly be here early this spring. We decided it was time to seriously check out the wildflowers in the woods on our ridge. We left the coziness of our valley and headed upward 300 ft in elevation to our ridgetop 80 acres. We are not expert at plant identification, but with the help of a Wisconsin Wildflower Guide we noted purple and yellow violets, bellwort, spring beauty, wood anemone, dutchmens’ britches, bloodroot, pussytoes, and Greek valerian.

Crabapple Blossoms

We saw at least 20 flowering crabapple trees that were absolutely loaded with blooms. A few small trees were flowering, we think they are northern-hearty dogwood that mange to eek out an existence this far north. Mayapples were prolific in some places, but not yet flowering.

Down the Ridge Road

The paths through our woods no longer had the black and brown and gray coloring of winter, but were instead softened by an array of green hues on the newly emerging leaves. Turkeys were gobbling in the not-to-far distance. We walked past the quarter acre vineyard that John and Jamee planted with such loving care last spring and found it to be patiently waiting for warmer weather.

It’s a great time for hiking in Wisconsin woods. Turn off the TV, put on some comfortable walking shoes, and enjoy the best spring in a long, long time!

Kickapoo River Canoeing

The 2010 canoeing season is now open on the Kickapoo River in Southwest Wisconsin. A leisurely paddle down the Kickapoo starting in either Ontario, Wisconsin or Rockton, Wisconsin will take you through some beautiful Driftless Area terrain complete with large limestone and sandstone rock outcroppings and some good trout fishing opportunities as well.

The Kickapoo River is a class 2 trout stream from Wilton to Gays Mills. Good spots to fish are the junctions where small streams flow into the Kickapoo. Right now all trout fishing is catch and release, and there is a week that is closed to trout fishing in early May as angling transitions into the regular season. From mid-May through the end of September trout season is fully open and you can catch your own dinner.

Don’t attempt to canoe the Kickapoo following heavy rain. Too much water is funneled quickly by the surrounding hills into this otherwise lazy river. But most of the time you can just relax, paddle slowly, and enjoy great scenery. If you float south from Ontario, you will pass through a corner of Wildcat Mountain State Park and past impressive limestone outcroppings. If you float out of Rockton, you will float through a long stretch of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, an 8600 acre parcel of public land (very much undeveloped) with great hiking and biking opportunities.

Spend two to six hours on the Kickapoo. Have a great local steak dinner. Lodge at one of the areas neat B&Bs, such as Inn at Lonesome Hollow. You’ll have a wonderful time.

Eagle soars over the Mississippi

Many winter guests at our rural bed and breakfast, the Inn at Lonesome Hollow, take the short drive to the big river to view the symbol of our nation. The most spectacular viewing occurs when most of the Mississippi is frozen, and only small areas (often downstream of dams) remain open. The eagles gather in these spots because they can enjoy fine winter fishing. Often one can view eagles soaring, eagles perched in trees, eagles sitting on nearby ice dining on their catch, even eagles swooping down on the water to grab lunch - all in one spot of the river.

There are a couple of local events that provide the opportunity to view the eagles along with programs, exhibits, and even winter hiking. In Prairie du Chien their Bald Eagle Appreciation Day is scheduled for February 27, 2010 and will be held at the regional tourism center at the Hwy 18 bridge entrance. Bird experts will be there to help inform the public about eagle behavior. Another eagle event, Cassville’s Bald Eagle Days will be held on Januray 30/31, 2010. Cassville is located about 30 miles south of Prairie Du Chien on the Mississippi River.

Pete and Nora

Slight glint of the morning dawn on the frozen river

The Kickapoo Valley Reserve (KVR) is a jewel. It is more than 8000 acres of roughly sculpted hills, bluffs, and valley that are owned by the people of Wisconsin. It is located near the center of the famed Driftless Area, a large island or peninsula of land that was spared by the Wisconsin Glacier of ten thousand years ago. The Kickapoo River has therefore been slowly wearing away the limestone bedrock of the valley for more than one hundred thousand years. In places this erosion is gentle in appearance, with graceful valleys that gradually meld into the hills. In other places this erosion is dramatic and limestone bluffs rise almost one hundred feet vertically out of the river bed. The Kickapoo Valley is twenty-five times older than the pyramids of Egypt. It is about 500 times older than the United State of America. It is evidence of the persistence, the patience, and the power of nature.

Kickapoo River from Bridge 15

Our walk was exceptional. We saw no other person. The trail wandered through pristine forest and valley bottom, often right alongside the ever wandering Kickapoo River. Our lungs sucked in the frigid air. We walked quickly to accelerate our heart rates and make our family doctor happy! Dr Dave would approve of our start to this day.

Bridge 15

It is too easy for midwesterners to stay inside during the cold winter months. We can always find diversions that keep us in the warmth and protection of our homes. But if you can muster the energy to venture out into the cold, the rewards can be amazing and beautiful. And blessed.

Happy winter!

Pete and Nora, Inn at Lonesome Hollow

Winter at Lonesome Hollow

It looks like the 2009/2010 winter will be another snowy one in Wisconsin. In SW Wisconsin, about 60 miles south of La Crosse, we are right now watching a big storm go through. There is already a foot of snow on the ground from this storm and 3-5 inches additional is forecast for later today. So, lets make lemonade from the lemons!

For those who are adventurous enough to go out into the snowy landscape, the rewards are many. There is nothing more quiet and more peaceful than a snow-filled forest. The normal quiet of a rural forest is rendered even quieter by the sound absorbing blanket of snow. Everything is fresh, and white, and invigorating. Animal lovers have access to the tracks of every critter that has recently passed before you on the trail. Signs of deer, rabbit, fox, turkey, coyote, and even an occasional bobcat will be there on the ground. Look also for signs of a hawk swooping down to the ground to grab an unsuspecting field mouse.

Snowshoeing at Lonesome Hollow

The Inn at Lonesome Hollow is a rural bed and breakfast located half way between Gays Mills and Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. Accommodations include B&B rooms, suites, and a cabin. All units have a gas fireplace to warm up over after a few hours in the woods. Four of our units have whirlpool tubs for you to soak away any residual chill. Enjoy a hot breakfast guaranteed to fill you up; dine at a great pub only four miles away; or order a take out meal from the pub’s menu and we will pick up your dinner for you.

The Inn offers complimentary use of snowshoes for use on the four miles of trails at Lonesome Hollow or at one of five nearby state parks.  Visit www.lonesomehollow.com to see hundreds of photos of our 160 acre property. We off special internet winter rates to make your stay economical as well as enjoyable.

Pete and Nora